LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 



Shelf .J2l3- 



CNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



HISTORICAL VALUE OF GENESIS I -XL 



Howbeit the firm foundation of God standeth. — 2 Tim. ii. 19. 



THE HISTORICAL VALUE 



First Eleven Chapters of Genesis; 



WITH SOME 



DISCUSSION OF THE NEW CRITICISM. 



BY THE 

REV. D. K BEACH. 



WITH AN INTRODUCTION 

BY 

EDWIN B. WEBB, D.D. 



DEC : fot 









BOSTON: 

Congregational ^unoag^cfjool anti ^ubltsfjmg ^octetg. 
1884. 



,1)4- 



Copyright, by 

Congregational S. S. and Publishing Society. 

1884. 



C. J. PETERS AND SON, 

STEREOTYPERS AND EEECTROTYPERS, 

145 Hige St. 



} 



Ea rag fflofytvi 



IN "WHOSE PLAIN HEADING OF THE OLD TESTAMENT WERE A 

SPIRIT AND INSIGHT WHICH WENT FAR TO MAKE IT 

TO HER HOUSEHOLD, AS TO HERSELF, 



GOD'S WORD. 



u 



. . . It is greatly in favor of the Bible account that it has no phil- 
osophy, and no appearance of any philosophy, either in the abstract 
form, or in that earlier poetical form which the first philosophy 
assumed. Its statements of grand facts have no appearance of bias 
in favor of any class of ideas. Its great antiquity is beyond dis- 
pute : it is older, certainly, than history or philosophy. It was be- 
fore the dawning of anything called science, as is shown by the fact 
that everything is denoted by its simplest phenomenal or optical 
name. There is no assigning of non-apparent causations, except 
the continual going forth of the mighty Word. It is impossible to 
discover any connection between it and any mythical poetry. The 
holy sublimity that pervades it is at war with the idea of direct 
and conscious forgery, designed to impose on others, and the 
thought of it as a mere work of genius, having its interest in a dis- 
play of inventive and descriptive talent, is inconsistent with every 
notion we can form of the thinking and aims of that early youth of 
the human race. It was not the age then, nor till long after, of lit- 
erary forgeries or fancy-tales. We are shut up to the conclusion of 
its subjective truthfulness, and its subjective authenticity. . . . 

. . . This stands alone in the world, like the primeval granite of 
the Himalaya among the later geological formations. ... — Tayler 
Levris. 



PEEFACE. 



The matter hereinafter contained was read before the 
"Woburn Association of Congregational Ministers, at their 
meeting in Boston, March 27, 1883. It was so favorably 
received, and so many wishes were expressed for its publica- 
tion, that the author has been led to present it to the public 
in this form. 

He does so not because it is new, or exhaustive, or an 
adequate handling of a great subject, but because it lays 
bare some of the roots of the present agitation respecting 
Old Testament criticism; and because it does this briefly 
and familiarly. It seems to have been in this particular that 
the paper served the ministers to whom it was first presented ; 
and it is the author's hope that it may do as much for its 
lay readers. 

He has amended it in some points, suggested — mainly — 
by the discussion which followed its reading. Beyond this 
nothing requires to be said, except on two points : 

1. It is not intended, in the section on the Biblical account 
of the creation (§ 30), or by the quotation there introduced, 
to maintain the technical accuracy of that narrative ; but its 
accuracy in the great characteristic features. And this, in 
accordance with that structural principle — as it may be 
called — of Scripture, about which something is said in an 
earlier section (§ 23, under Number 2). 

2. The expression "New Criticism" is used in reference 
to the Old Testament, and in a sense clear enough, it is 
hoped, but somewhat difficult to define, (a.) There is a 
criticism of the Old Testament, "new," and thoroughly and 
fearlessly critical, which prosecutes its investigations, never- 
theless, in the light of an authentic New Testament, and in 



viii Preface. 

accordance with the presuppositions of historical Christianity. 
It thus occupies the true point of approach to the Old Tes- 
tament, and is devoutly to be welcomed, (b.) The " New 
Criticism " here meant — though all of its adherents are not to 
be so characterized — does not occupy such a point of 
approach. It either denies miracles, or has no freeness of 
conception regarding them ; and, having thus no fair hold 
upon even the New Testament, it passes to the Old, hope- 
lessly prejudiced against the supernatural in it. And, not to 
give other illustrations, it has for one of its presuppositions an 
order of religious progress, from the beginning, analogous to 
that order which has obtained under Christianity, the order, 
namely, of life, then form (or training) ; instead of the 
Christian presupposition that, because of the " hardness " of 
the human heart, a formal training in religion necessarily 
preceded outbreaking life — so preparing the way for the 
superabundant life with which, "when the fullness of the 
time came" (Gal. iv. 4), Christianity broke upon the world. 
(If it be urged in support of the former presupposition, that 
there were outbreakings of life early in the history — notably 
in Abraham's case ; it is to be replied, not only that these out- 
breakings were sporadic, but that the Scriptures uniformly 
represent them as earnests merely of what was by and by to 
obtain — Abraham the father of the faithful, and waiting 
long for progeny.) (c.) It may be remarked that, on the 
single presupposition instanced, the " reconstruction " of the 
Old Testament is a foregone conclusion — in fact, its inver- 
sion. If, then, this little book shall serve to emphasize the 
disagreement of so deep-seeing an historian as Ewald with 
the treatment which Hebrew history is at present under- 
going at the dictation of this presupposition, one main pur- 
pose of its publication will be accomplished. 

Wakefield, Mass., May 6, 18S4. 



CONTENTS. 



PAGE 



LITERATURE CONSULTED xi 

Introduction by Edwin B. Webb, D. D xv 



Introduction (§§ 1-4) 1 

Part I. — Origin of the Pentateuch (§§ 5-21): 

I. Some Recent Views (§§ 5-14) 7 

1. Ewald (§§ 5-11) 7 

2. Kuenen (§12) 19 

3. Graf and his School (§ 13) . . . .., . 20 

4. W. Robertson Smith (§14) 22 

II. Remarks upon the Foregoing Views (§§ 15-18) 25 

First Remark (§15) 25 

Second Remark (§ 16) . . 26 

Third Remark (§17) 27 

Fourth Remark (§18) 27 

III. Grounds of Dissent from the Foregoing 

Views (§§ 19-21) 29 

1. General Grounds (§19) 29 

2. Particular Grounds (§20) 33 

3. Grounds in the Nature of the Case 

(§21) 34 



Contents. 



Part II. — Authenticity of Chapters I.-XI. (§§ 
22-44) : 

Preliminary Observations (§§ 22-25) 38 

I. Testimony of Secular Historians (§§ 26-28) 46 

1. Lenormant (§ 26) 46 

2. Ewald (§27) 46 

3. Henry and George Rawlins on (§28) . 47 
II. External Testimony (§§ 29-35) 48 

1. Creation (§30) 49 

2. Man's First Condition — The Fall (§ 31) 50 

3. The Flood (§32) 51 

4. The Confusion of Tongues (§ 33) . . 52 

5. Origin and Distribution of the Nations 

(§34) 54 

6. The Genealogical Chronology (§ 35) . 55 

III. Internal Evidence (§§ 36-39) ...... 56 

IV. Testimony of the Pre-existent Christ (§§ 

40,41) 60 

Conclusion (§§ 42-44) 64 



LITERATURE CONSULTED. 



Bibliotheca Sacra: "The Historic Character of the Penta- 
teuch " (April, 1863 ; President Bartlett) ; " The First Eleven 
Chapters of Genesis Attested by their Contents " (July, 1865 ; 
Professor Hackett — from the German of Auberlen, with 
annotations) ; " The History of Research concerning the 
Structure of the Old Testament Historical Books" (Oct., 
1880; July, 1882; Professor Duff) ; "Professor W. Robert- 
son Smith and his Theories of Old Testament Criticism" 
(Jan., 1882; C. F. Thwing) ; "Professor W. Robertson 
Smith from a Conservative Stand-point" (April, 1882; Pro- 
fessor J. P. Taylor) ; " Proposed Reconstruction of the Pen- 
tateuch" (Jan., 1883; Professor Bissell). 

Contemporary Review : " The Genealogies between Adam 
and the Deluge" (April, 1880; F. Lenormant). 

Princeton Review : "Historical Value of the Pentateuch" 
(July, 1858 ; J. M. Macdonald). 

Smith's Dictionary of the Bible — Articles: "Old Testa- 
ment" (J. F. Thrupp), "Pentateuch" (Canon Perowne, 
President Bartlett), "Genesis" (Canon Perowne), "Enoch, 
Book of" (Canon Westcott). 

Encyclopaedia Britannica (IX.thEd.) — Article: "History." 



Lange on Genesis. 

Keil on the Pentateuch. 

Ewald's "History of Israel." 

Stanley's "Lectures on the History of the Jewish Church." 



xii Literature Consulted. 

W. Robertson Smith's "Old Testament in the Jewish 
Church." 

G. Smith's " Chaldean Account of Genesis." 

Stebbins' " Study of the Pentateuch." 

Geikie's "Hours with the Bible." 

G. Rawlinson's Herodotus. 

G. Rawlinson's "Manual of Ancient History." 

Lenormant's "Beginnings of History." 

"Wright's " Studies in Science and Religion." 



During the fourteen months since the preparation of this volume, 
there have appeared — written from various points of view — the 
following articles: Bibliotheca Sacra: "Proposed Reconstruction of 
the Pentateuch," II. (April, 1883), III. (Oct., 1883), IV. (Jan., 
1884; Professor Bissell); " On the Origin of the Primitive Historical 
Traditions of the Hebrews" (July, 1883; G-. H. Whittemore — from 
the German of Dillmann) ; "A Symposium on the Antediluvian Narra- 
tives. — Lenormant, Delitzsch, Haupt, Dillmann" (July, 1883; Profes- 
sor Curtiss); " Sketches of Pentateuch Criticism " (Jan., 1884; Profes- 
sor Curtiss); " The Inspiration of the Old Testament" (April, 1884; I. 
P. Warren); Review of W. Robertson Smith's "Prophets of Israel" 
(April, 1884; Professor Dwinell). Journal of Christian Philosophy: 
"The Antiquity of Man Historically Considered" (April, 1883; G. 
Rawlinson); "The Mosaic Authorship of the Pentateuch" (Oct., 
1883; Dean Payne-Smith); "The Historical Chapters of Daniel 
Attested by Contemporary Records" (Oct., 1883; W. H. Ward). 
New Englander : " The Present Outlook for Old Testament Study" 
(Sept., 1883; Professor Denio). North American Review: "Criti- 
cism and Christianity" (April, 1883; O. B. Frothingham); "Recent 
Criticisms of the Bible" (April, 1884; A. G. Mortimer, R. H. New- 
ton). Presbyterian Review : " The Dogmatic Aspect of Pentateuchal 
Criticism " (April, 1883 ; Professor Patton). Princeton Review : " The 
Critical Study of the Scriptures" [with special reference to R. H. 
Newton's "Right and Wrong Uses of the Bible," and W. Robertson 
Smith's " Old Testament in the Jewish Church"] (Nov., 1883; F. A. 



Literature, April, 1883-May, 1884.. xiii 

Henry). Unitarian Review : " The Hebrew Prophets," III. (April, 
1883), IV. (Dec, 1883; Professor Stebbins); "Did Ezra Write or 
Amend Any Portion of the Pentateuch?" (Sept., 1883; Professor 
Stebbins); "Kuenen vs. Delitzsch" (Oct., 1883; J. Visher). Uni- 
versal ist Quarterly : "The Bible" (Oct., 1883; G. T. Flanders). 

Also, the following books : Bartlett (President), " Sources of History 
in the Pentateuch " ; Briggs (Professor), "Biblical Study: Its Princi- 
ples, Methods, and History; together with a Catalogue of Books of 
Eeference"; Bush (J. S.), "More Words about the Bible"; Guyot 
(Professor), " Creation, or the Bible Cosmogony in the Light of 
Modern Science" ; Howison (R. R.), " God and Creation" ; Mcllvaine 
(J. H.), "The Wisdom of Holy Scripture, with Reference to Skepti- 
cal Objections " ; Newton (R. H.), " The Right and Wrong Uses of the 
Bible"; also, "The Book of the Beginnings: a Study of Genesis; 
with an Introduction to the Pentateuch"; Bawlinson (G.), "The 
Early Prevalence of Monotheistic Beliefs " ; Savage (M. J.), "Beliefs 
about the Bible"; Toy (Professor), "Quotations in the New Testa- 
ment." To these should be added: Boardman, Curtiss and Scott 
(Professors), "Current Discussions in Theology" [in the annual 
volume for 1883, and in the same for 1884 — "Part I. — Exegetical 
Theology"]; Fisher (Professor), "The Grounds of Theistic and 
Christian Belief" [Chapters XII., XVII.,XIX.]; and, Green (Pro- 
fessor), "Moses and the Prophets" [inexpensive edition of an 
important book which had been issued in more elaborate form late 
in 1882]. 



On any view that does not pass the bounds of reason, " the law 
came by Moses." The recollection of the leadership of Moses, of his 
grand and dominating agency in the deliverance of the people from 
bondage, and in laying the foundations of their theocratic polity, was 
indelibly stamped upon the Hebrew mind. To discredit a tradition so 
deeply rooted in the generations that followed would be a folly of 
incredulity. It might almost be said that the voice of the great 
Lawgiver reverberates down the subsequent ages of Hebrew history, 
until the appearance of him whose teaching fulfilled, and in that 
sense superseded, the utterances of them "of old time." Ewald has 
dwelt impressively on the living memory, the memory of the heart, 
transmitted from father to son, of the great redemption from Egyp- 
tian slavery, — the standing type of the mighty spiritual deliverance 
to be achieved by a greater than Moses. If Moses was in reality so 
effective an agent in forming the Israelitish nation, and in shaping its 
peculiar system ; if, in truth, so powerful an impulse emanated from 
him . . . , the question is naturally suggested, whether there 
would be wanting (since the art of writing was then well known) 
contemporary records, and something from the pen of Moses himself. 
If there is nothing improbable in the statement that he was learned in 
all the wisdom of the Egyptians, then it is surely to be expected that 
he would, to some extent, have committed his laws and injunctions to 
writing. If so, it cannot be regarded as unlikely that what he thus 
composed constitute an important part, to say the least, of the 
materials of the Pentateuch. — George P. Fisher. 



INTKODUCTIO^. 



Rev. D. JV. Beach: 

My Dear Brother : To introduce your little 
book I am very happy. I wish I had a larger 
acquaintance that I might bespeak for it a wider 
reception. I wish also the book were bigger. 
You wish, no doubt, it were better. But a most 
timely, worthy little book it is : modest, compre- 
hensive, compact and suggestive. 

"With the pleasure which I have in reading 
the book I feel that the author has written under 
the severest self-restraint. And hence I am 
tempted to say a few words in general on one 
point — on the testimony of Jesus Christ to the 
divine character and authority of the Old Tes- 
tament. 

In all matters of which he spoke Jesus Christ 
is supreme. The sinless one: the peerless one: 
the God-man: all are agreed in giving him the 
throne of their inmost confidence. When he 
speaks, doubt is settled; debate is ended. His 
word is final. From his verdict there is no 
appeal. 



xvi Introduction 



The attempt, sometimes made, to distinguish 
between the ethical and the historical in Christ's 
teachings cannot obtain. Such an attempt must 
end in attributing to him either deficiency in 
knowledge or defect in moral character. To 
introduce the knife of criticism here, between 
the written record and the spiritual doctrine, is 
more than to sever the thread of inspiration; it 
is to mangle the perfection of his peerless char- 
acter and to introduce a blood poison into his 
whole system. It is to destroy the foundations 
of our confidence in him. It is to chill and 
cloud with painful uncertainty his solemn assever- 
ations: "Verily, verily I say unto you." 

Still further it is agreed that the Old Testa- 
ment, substantially as we have it, existed at the 
time of Christ's coming. "Wherever Jews set- 
tled, in country or city, they were found to pos- 
sess a book, held to be of Divine origin and of 
peculiar character, recognized as sacred, and 
read every Sabbath day in the synagogues. 

Copies of this Holy Book in different lan- 
guages, and catalogues of the contents of it, — 
copies and catalogues made many generations 
before Jesus came, — have been wonderfully 
preserved and brought down to us, so that we 
know^ that our Old Testament is the book which 



by JEdivin B. Webb, D. D. xvii 

Jesus studied and read and taught. Scholars 
tell us that the Samaritan Pentateuch is found, 
some say, seven hundred years before Christ. 
They also tell us that from the Maccabean perse- 
cution, nearly two hundred years before Christ, 
the Old Testament appears as a whole ; and that 
the distinction of three parts, the Law, the Pro- 
phets, and the Psalms, is readily traced back 
almost to the same date. This same division 
Jesus himself recognized when he addressed the 
disciples after his resurrection — "And he said 
unto them, These are the words which I spake 
unto you, while I was yet with you, that all 
things must be fulfilled, which were written in 
the law of Moses, and in the prophets, and in 
the psalms, concerning me." 

The translators still at work on the revision 
of the Old Testament may find occasion, per- 
haps, to give a modified meaning to some words; 
to alter the arrangement of some narratives ; to 
drop out some passages because they are not 
found in the earlier and original manuscripts, 
and to add some sentences, or parts of sentences 
because they are found there. Concede all this; 
the fact remains that prior to the Christian era 
the Jews had a book well defined as to its con- 
tents, peculiar in character, and sacred in their 



Introduction 



esteem, a book substantially the same as our Old 
Testament. 

"With this book, let it be added now, with this 
book Jesus was perfectly familiar. For this 
book Jesus had unmistakable reverence. In the 
wilderness the tempter is rebuked at every as- 
sault by weapons drawn from the Pentateuch, — 
particularly from Deuteronomy. As President 
"Woolsey says: "At the last supper, the words 
that institute the rite, take their coloring from 
certain most important passages in the prophets ; 
his words of agony on the cross are in the lan- 
guage of the Twenty-second Psalm; and when 
the risen Lord appeared to his disciples ? He 
opened their understanding, that they might 
understand the Scriptures.' And if we go back 
beyond the commencement of his public minis- 
try, we find the only habit of life recorded of 
him to be that * He went into the synagogue on 
the Sabbath day, and stood up for to read.' 
Here, then, in this sequestered village, away from 
the emptiness of Pharisaical learning, and from 
Sadducean skepticism, he was reared on the 
divine word in its simplicity." President "Wool- 
sey adds for substance that God chose this sim- 
ple method of placing Jesus alone with the 
ancient Scriptures, away from human teachers 



by Edwin B. Webb, D. D. xix 

and comments, that he might partake of and 
pass down their permanent truth; that for the 
work of the Messiah which was before him his 
mind might be filled with the pure truth. 

~Now for the conclusion: perfectly familiar as 
he was with these ancient Scriptures, reared 
upon them, trained in them, did he indorse 
them? Did Jesus, whose distinguishing claim 
is that his words are true, who calls amid all the 
clamor of schools and sects and false teachers, 
upon the race of man, to look to him as the truth 
— did Jesus set his signature and the seal of 
his testimony to the truth of the Old Testament? 

A few sentences from his own teachings an- 
swer this question beyond a doubt. In private 
and in public, on occasions the most momentous, 
and in circumstances the most trying and criti- 
cal, Jesus appealed to and indorsed the writings 
of this Book. 

To the lawyer he said: "What is written in 
the law? how readest thou?" 

In the parable, through the lips of Abraham, 
to the rich man pleading for instruction and tes- 
timony to be sent to his brethren while still in a 
state of probation, he says : K They have Moses 
and the prophets ; let them hear them." Under 
circumstances more solemn, or in words more 



xx Introduction. 



decisive, could Jesus have indorsed Moses and 
the prophets? For our instruction; for our sal- 
vation they are enough. 

Again Jesus says, and the new reading does 
not weaken the point, — " Search the Scriptures ; 
for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and 
they are they which testify of me." 

And on the way to Emmaus, after his resur- 
rection, to the two disciples he said : " O fools, 
and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets 
have spoken. . . . And beginning at Moses and all 
the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the 
Scriptures the things concerning himself." 

To quote further seems needless. Jesus 
Christ, who came forth from the Father, believed 
the Old Testament Scriptures. Jesus Christ, 
who knows what is in man, referred to these 
Scriptures as supreme and sufficient. Jesus 
Christ, the truth, set the seal of his testimony to 
the truth of Moses, the prophets, and the Psalms. 
And his word is supreme. 

E. B. WEBB. 

Boston, May 28, 1884. 



HISTORICAL VALUE OE GENESIS I.-XL 



INTRODUCTION. 



Prove all things. —1 Thess. v. 21. 



§ 1. These chapters contain: 

First, An account of the creation. 

Second, An account of man's first 
condition, of his first sin, and of its 
immediate consequences. 

Third, An account of the wicked- 
ness of the early descendants of man, 
of their consequent destruction by a 
flood, and of the preservation from the 
flood of the parents of anew race. 

Fourth, An account of the ambitious 
spirit of the new race, and of the check 
put upon it by the confusion of tongues 
at Babel. 

Considerable biographical matter is 
wrought into the narrative, and there 
are notices respecting geography, the 
arts, and the earliest literature ; but, 
particularly : 



§1. Contents 
of the chap- 
ters. 



Historical Value of Genesis I -XI. [§§ 



§ 2. Limita- 
tion of the in- 
quiry to the 
question of 
their historical 
trustworthi- 
ness. 



Fifth, An account is given of the 
origin and distribution of the earliest 
tribes and nations; and, 

Sixth, The whole is put within defi- 
nite time-limits by a chronology in 
genealogical form. 

§ 2. The question is : "What is the 
historical value of these chapters? 

The expression " historical value " is 
used in two principal senses: first, as 
the equivalent of "historical trustwor- 
thiness ; " and, secondly, as the equiv- 
alent of " historical importance." The 
justice of these two uses of the 
expression is obvious: for, though no 
historical matter is valuable except in 
so far as it is trustworthy, much histor- 
ical matter of unquestionable trust- 
worthiness is of no value because it is 
of no importance. 

With regard to the historical value 
of these chapters in the second sense, 
it is clear that in so far as trustworthy 
they are of the highest historical im- 
portance, since they are occupied with 
the starting-points of history, and af- 



1-3.] 



Introduction. 



ford a key to the most ultimate histori- 
cal inquiries. 

The present inquiry accordingly lim- 
its itself, at the outset, to the other 
principal sense in which the expression 
" historical value " is used, and becomes 
simply an examination into the histori- 
cal trustworthiness — or authenticity — 
of these chapters. 

§ 3. Considered abstractly, such an 
examination might show these chajrters 
to be of absolute historical trustworthi- 
ness; or to be absolutely untrustwor- 
thy; or to be partly trustworthy and 
partly not ; and the result of the exam- 
ination ought to show the first, or the 
second, or else to constitute a bill of 
particulars wherein the chapters are 
trustworthy and wherein not. 

1. But, if the chapters were shown 
to be absolutely untrustworthy as his- 
tory, it would not follow that they were 
ethically untrustworthy : they might be 
shown to contain the most weighty 
ethical truths. Nor would it follow 
that they were untrustworthy as sym- 



Introd. 



§ 3. Possible 
range of the 
answer. 



1. Less at 

stake than 
might appear. 
Consequent 
fearlessness 
with lohichth". 
inquiry should 
be under- 
taken. 



Historical Value of Genesis 1 -XI. [§§ 



2. The in- 
quiry should 
be pursued in 
a historical 
rather than 
dogmatic 
spirit. 



bols of historical truth : they might 
constitute, as it were, the algebraic 
notation of historical verities only to 
be read at their exact value on some 
higher plane of human intelligence. 
For these reasons no one should shrink 
from eying most critically these begin- 
nings of Revelation, and from giving 
candid consideration to the new treat- 
ment to which they are subjected by 
the historical methods of our time. 

2. Again, the inquiry may be pursued 
— as, indeed, the case requires — in a 
historical rather than in a dogmatic 
spirit. The dogmatic spirit, properly 
guarded, must attend inquiries concern- 
ing principles, inasmuch as principles 
are so intimately related that one often 
involves another, and that many princi- 
ples which offer themselves, and which 
are plausible enough by themselves, re- 
quire to be rejected because destructive 
of known principles. But events — 
into which it is the province of history 
to inquire — do not have the same sol- 
idarity of relation; and, accordingly, 



3,4.] 



Introduction. 



are to be judged more independently — 
that is, not dogmatically, but histor- 
ically. 

§ 4. Though the present inquiry is 
limited to the question of historical 
trustworthiness, the possible range of 
the answer — as outlined above — ren- 
ders it obvious that little more can be 
done in this essay than cursorily to 
glance at a few of the more salient 
points. It is proposed to do this ac- 
cording to the following plan : 

Inasmuch as the inquiry turns in part 
upon the question of the origin of the 
Pentateuch, some of the more recent 
views on that subject will first be 
sketched, and some judgment expressed 
respecting them. This will constitute 
Part I. of the essay. 

The question of the historical trust- 
worthiness — or authenticity — of the 
chapters under inquiry will next be taken 
up : 1. As matter of testimony, from their 
treatment by secular historians; 2. As 
matter of fact, by external tests; 3. As 
matter of inference, from internal evi- 



§ 4. Cursory 
treatment of 
the inquiry 
necessary. 



Its plan. 



6 Historical Value of Genesis I -X.L [§§4,5. 



dence ; and, 4, As matter of testimony, 
from him, and from the duly accredited 
representatives of him, who said : w Be- 
fore Abraham was, I am " (John viii. 
58). This will constitute Part II. of 
the essay. 



PART I. -ORIGIN OF THE PENTATEUCH. 



Whence : 
The law was given by Moses. — John i. 17. 

What : 
The law hath been our tutor. — Gal. Hi. 24. 

In what Order : 
Beginning from Moses and from all the prophets. — 
Luke xxiv. 27. 

How : 

No prophecy ever came by the will of man: but men spake 
from God, being moved by the Holy Ghost. — 2 Pet. i. 21. 



I. Some Becent Views. 
1. JEJivald. 

§ 5. Ewald — late Professor at Got- 
tingen — notes as a peculiarity of He- 
brew historical literature, its amplitude 
— besides the extant documents many 
others referred to, and probably yet 
many others which failed to receive 
mention. Partly owing to this ampli- 
tude, and partly by reason of the habit 
of the Hebrew^ historians to write 
anonymously, he maintains that there 
grew up among them an art of K book- 



Part I. 



§ 5. Ampli- 
tude of He- 
brew historical 
literature. 
" Book-com- 
pounding." 
Grouping of 
Hebrew histor- 
ical remains 
with this in 
mind. 



8 Historical Value of Genesis I -XL [§§ 



Part I. 



§ 6. First 
group ("an- 
tiquity of the 
nation") — 
the Penta- 
teuch and 
Book of 
Joshua. 

Contains 
fragments of: 



compounding," as well as of book-mak- 
ing ; indeed, that the exigencies of 
Hebrew historical literature demanded 
and justified such an art. Consequently 
the present remains of Hebrew histori- 
cal literature must be received with this 
fact in mind. So receiving them, and 
subjecting them to close scrutiny, he 
finds that they group themselves into 
three classes: 1. Those devoted to the 
antiquity of the nation; 2. Those devoted 
to its middle history, first under judges, 
then under kings ; and, 3. Those devoted 
to its later history. 

§ 6. To the first group belong the 
Pentateuch and the Book of Joshua. 
This group, as the oldest, must have been 
the oftenest worked over. Searched 
for fragments of the most ancient books, 
a considerable number are discovered. 
They are marked by archaic forms; 
have no coloring of legislative or of 
prophetical import, such as later com- 
positions manifest; are concise, simple, 
truly antique. When analyzed and 
grouped these fragments suggest three 



5,6.] 



Origin of the Pentateuch. 



ancient, purely historical works, which 
may be called: The w Book of the Wars 
of Jehovah" (Num. xxi. 14) ; The w Bi- 
ography of Moses; " and, The w Book of 
Covenants." 

1. The first of these, and the sim- 
plest in style, celebrated the victories 
under Moses and Joshua, and must 
have been of nearly contemporaneous 
origin. 

2. The second of these, from its more 
finished style, seems to have had a some- 
what later origin, and to have worked 
up the principal memories respecting 
Moses. Of it still fewer fragments 
remain. 

3. The third of these, the " Book of 
Covenants," of which there are more 
numerous remains, was devoted to the 
various covenants which had been made 
between distinguished individuals, as 
Jacob and Laban, or which Jehovah 
had made with the nation. It is be- 
lieved to have been composed in the 
unsettled times under the Judges, when 
there began to be developed that spirit 



1. "Book of 
the Wars of Je- 
hovah" {nearly 
contemporary 
with the vic- 
tories under 
3Ioses and 
Joshua) ; 

2. " Biogra- 
phy of Moses" 
{somewhat 
later) ; 



3. "Book of 
Covenants " 
{troubled 
times under 
the Judges). 



10 



Historical Value of Genesis I -XL [§§ 



Paht I. 



§ 7. "Book 
of Origins" 
{nearly con- 
temporary 
with the com- 
pletion of Sol- 
omon's Tem- 
ple). 



Hebrew his- 
tory now first 
treated com- 
prehensively, 
and in its rela- 
tions to gen- 
eral history as 
viewed by the 
Hebrews. 



of turning to the Lord, and of re-enter- 
ing a covenant relation with him, which 
at length produced Samuel and David. 

§ 7. Out of such a spirit arose the 
Hebrew monarchy, and flowered into 
its golden age almost at once under 
David and Solomon. In the still pres- 
ent glory of that age, out of the priestly 
class which Temple and ritual exalted, 
arose the historian who first brought 
together into a compact work an account 
of the " antiquity of the nation," which 
may be styled the " Book of Origins " 
("generations;" Gen. ii. 4; v. 1; etc.). 

It was the true period for the pro- 
duction of a great historical work — 
just as Herodotus and Thucidides arose 
in Greece, after the victories over the 
Persians. The work was of that age, 
as evinced by the " glances that it casts 
upon its own times in the midst of an 
exhibition of the patriarchal world ; " as 
evinced by half-envious acknowledg- 
ments that other nations possessed 
kings K before there reigned any king 
over the children of Israel " (Gen. 



6,7.] 



Origin of the Pentateuch. 



11 



xxxvi. 31) ; and as evinced by a frag- 
ment of this writer found in 1 Kings. 
His "chief aim was unmistakably to 
survey from the resting-place which 
that epoch had reached, the entire mass 
of historical matter in its greatest 
extent, and to trace it back up to the 
ultimate commencement of all creation." 
He embraced the favorite idea of the 
cultivated nations, which casts the his- 
tory of mankind into four ages — the 
latest, with this writer, the present age ; 
the next earlier, that of the patriarchs; 
the next two, the time preceding the 
patriarchs, marked off into two parts 
by the deluge. As, however, this writer 
could not but admit that his nation had 
only lately achieved eminence, he was 
led " to show from the store of ancient 
tradition how Israel, although so recent 
a community, had yet been separated 
from all other nations, and become 
dominant over many in fulfillment of 
its high destiny." Not only did He- 
brew tradition assist him, but his 
acquaintance with other nations through 



Part I. 



12 Historical Value of Genesis I -XI. [§ 



Part I. 



the victories of David. According to 
his plan he disposed of nation after 
nation, and of family after family, which 
did not lead down to Israel — Japheth 
and Ham left to take up Shem; Terah's 
descendants left to take up Abraham's ; 
Esau's, to take up Jacob's. In accord- 
ance with his priestly lineage, and with 
the hold which the newly erected Tem- 
ple had upon the popular mind, he 
expanded ritual legislation so as to 
constitute a large portion of his work; 
but showed his real greatness by mak- 
ing that only central to a greater whole. 
To him everything was hopeful. With 
exuberant sympathy, and yet with true 
art, he threw himself into harmony 
with the several ages which he depicted, 
and suited his style — even in minute 
archaic particulars — to the require- 
ments of each age. "Lofty spirit!" 
exclaims Ewald ; " thou whose work 
has for centuries not unnaturally " been 
" taken for that of thy great hero Moses 
himself, I know not thy name, and 
divine only from thy vestiges when 



7,8.] 



Origin of the Pentateuch. 



13 



thou didst live, and what thou didst 
achieve: but if these thy traces in- 
controvertibly forbid me to identify 
thee with him who was greater than 
thou, and whom thou thyself only 
desirest to magnify according to his 
deserts, then see that there is no guile 
in me, nor any pleasure in knowing 
thee not absolutely as thou wert ! " 

§ 8. This was the unsurpassed work 
on the earlier Hebrew history. But it 
was several times recast : partly, because 
its judicious writer had not exhausted 
the store of ancient historical material; 
partly, because of the existence of di- 
verse traditions in different parts of the 
country; and, partly, because of addi- 
tions to the stock of legend and story 
which further intercourse with foreign 
nations introduced. Moreover, succes- 
sive periods saw the history in succes- 
sive lights, and had successive purposes 
in view in writing history. Not to go, 
then, into much detail further : 

1. A Third Narrator (counting the 
preceding as second, and the authors of 



Part I. 



§ 8. "Pro- 
phetical Nar- 
rators of the 

Primitive 
History : " 



1. "Third'' 

Narrator 
(nearly con- 



14 Historical Value of Genesis I -XI. [§§ 



Part I. 

temporary 
w it h Elijah) — 
prophetic ad- 
ditions ; 



2. " Fourth " 
Narrator 

{somewhat 
later) — inde- 
pendent ivorJc, 
freely treating 
the history in 
accordance 
with Messi- 
anic hopes ; 



3. "Fifth" 
Narrator 
(nearly con- 
temporary 
with Joel) — 
compilation 
abridging 
contempora- 
neous histori- 



the three ancient works as first), who 
belonged to about the period of Elijah, 
and was marked by the prophetic rather 
than by the legislative spirit, made sev- 
eral characteristic additions to the 
" Book of Origins," which may be 
detected by their style. 

2. A Fourth barrator, somewhat later, 
in whom the prophetic spirit culminated, 
constructed an independent work, char- 
acterized by a free and poetical use of 
the history to suit his purpose. He 
sought to work into the primitive his- 
tory, supports for Messianic hopes ; 
shaped the history so as to show more 
clearly the necessary overthrow of every 
unrighteous power; and, through the 
ethical purpose of his work, tended to 
lose sight of the distinctive character- 
istics of the several ancient periods. 

3. A Fifth barrator, of about the 
time of the prophet Joel, finding con- 
temporaneous historical literature swol- 
len to great bulk, next recast the history 
into substantially the form of the greater 
part of the present Pentateuch. He 



8,9.] 



Origin of the Pentateuch. 



15 



made use of a variety of authorities, 
but principally of the foregoing works. 
The prophetic spirit and tone marked 
him, but he considerably repressed the 
Messianic element, and made more of 
faith victorious through trial. A soured 
spirit toward surrounding nations* ap- 
peared in him — a reflex of the times. 
His style showed deterioration from 
that of his predecessors. To his abridg- 
ments are due a variety of breaks now 
to be found in the narrative. In the 
process of epitomizing he disregarded 
minor contradictions which might ap- 
pear in the completed work. 

Inasmuch as under these writers the 
legislative spirit of the w Book of Ori- 
gins " was succeeded by the prophetic, 
they may be distinguished as " the 
Prophetical IsTarrators of the primitive 
history." 

§ 9. The greater part of the Penta- 
teuch having now reached substantially 
its final shape, it served the purpose of 
some well-wisher of his nation to ad- 
dress his countrymen, amidst their 



Part I. 

cal material to 
substantially 
the form of the 
greater part of 
the present 
Pentateuch, 
and consid- 
erably repress- 
ing the Messi- 
anic element. 



§ 9. " The 
Beuterono- 
mist " (latter 
halfofJSIanas- 
seh's reign) — 
patriotic ad- 
dress to the 
nation, under 



16 Historical Value of Genesis I -XI. [§§ 



Part I. 

Moses' name 
(Deuterono- 
my)) supple- 
mented by a 

recast of the 
life of Joshua 
to suit the ad- 
dress (Book of 
Joshua). This 
the book dis- 
covered in the 
Temple, under 
Josiah. 



accumulating misfortunes, with a view 
to a renewed and reformed national 
life. He did so by supposing Moses — 
no longer at the distance of a legislator, 
speaking in set phrase, but as a familiar 
orator among the people — to recast 
the Law, and to mingle with it bright 
promises and pointed threats. But as 
this would constitute theory and ex- 
hortation only, he supplemented this 
part of his work by recasting the life 
of Joshua, and by representing him as 
successfully carrying out the new order 
of things in the early history. Hence, 
substantially the present Deuteronomy 
and Book of Joshua — the former 
largely fresh matter, the latter the old 
history worked over to suit the pui^ose 
in hand. The writer may be called "the 
Deuteronomist." He did not write 
fraudulently, but prepared an ethical 
treatise in historical form. He would 
seem to have resided in Egypt, and to 
have written in the latter half of King 
Manasseh's reign. It was a stray copy 
of his book, somehow brought, years 



9, 10.] 



Origin of the Pentateuch. 



17 



before, into Palestine, and to the Temple, 
which was discovered there under the 
good King Josiah (2 Kings xxii.; 2 
Chron. xxxiv.). 

§ 10. The powerful effect which the 
discovery of this book produced (2 
Kings xxiii. ; 2 Chron. xxxiv., xxxv.) 
gave it great distinction. "With slight 
additional matter, of a similar stamp, 
it was joined on to the compilation of 
the Fifth Narrator, and became, with 
that, the present Pentateuch and Book 
of Joshua — the whole undergoing, 
however, trifling editorial modifications 
later. As the compactest work on the 
ancient history, and as a work a portion 
of which had been of great historical 
service, this composite document was 
preserved, was revered more and more, 
and became at length the most sacred 
Hebrew book. 

"In conclusion," remarks Ewald, "we 
can now understand what extraordinary 
fortunes this great work underwent, 
before it attained its present form. . . . 

2 



§10. The work 
of the ''Fifth" 
Narrator and 
of the Beuter- 
onomist soon 
combined, and 
at length re- 
vered, as the 
present Penta- 
teuch and 
Book of Josh- 
ua. From 
them "still 
shines forth 
very muchthat 
is original." 



18 Historical Value of Genesis L-XL [§§ 



Past I. 



§ 11. Ewald's 
point of vieio 
historical. 
Characteriza- 
tion of him. 



From amid the wreck of the oldest 
writings and the multitude of later ad- 
ditions, there still shines forth very 
much that is original." 

§ 11. Ewald's point of view is that 
of an historical critic. He is hardly 
theological at all. He is characterized 
by great and comprehensive learning; 
hy remarkable powers of analysis and 
of generalization; and above all by a 
singular talent for actualizing past 
events. Even in the dry, critical parts 
of his history, he often quickens one's 
blood by his life-like touches. Few men 
have put Biblical scholarship under 
greater obligations to them. Those 
scholars who least agree with him con- 
tinually quote or allude to him. Few, 
however, follow him. Canon Westcott 
— not too conservative himself — says 
of him, in another connection : M Ewald, 
according to his usual custom, picks 
out the different elements with a daring 
confidence, and leaves a result so com- 
plicated that no one can accept it in its 
details, while it is characterized in its 



10-12.] Origin of the Pentateuch. 



19 



great features by masterly judgment 
and sagacity." 

2. Kuenen. 

§ 12. Kuenen — Professor at Leyden, 
and representative of a considerable 
school of Dutch Biblical critics — occu- 
pies a theological point of view, but 
only in the broadest sense. He exam- 
ines the religion of the Hebrews as 
simply one of " the principal religions." 
It " is one of these religions, nothing 
less, but also nothing more." " Moses 
bequeathed no book of the Law to the 
tribes of Israel. Certainly, nothing 
more was committed to writing by him, 
or in his time, than ? the Ten "Words ' 
[Commandments] in their original 
form." "The first four books of the 
Pentateuch are more recent than the 
seventh century before our era ; " and, 
accordingly, since King Josiah died 
within the seventh century, are more 
recent than the book found during his 
reign. That book was substantially 
Deuteronomy. It was — as in Ewald's 



§ 12. Kue- 
rten's point of 
view theolog- 
ical in an un- 
evangelical 
sense. The 
Pentateuch 
neither of the 
Mosaic age, 
nor a reposi- 
tory of much 
trustioorthy 
historical mat- 
ter. 



20 Historical Value of Genesis I -XL [§§ 



§13. The 
point of vieiv 
of Graf's 
school, theolog- 
ical in a more 
evangelical 
sense. Its 
practical con- 
clusions hard- 
ly less radical. 



view — a new work ; but it was imposed 
upon the king — contrary to Ewald, 
who says : w The want of historical con- 
scientiousness cannot be more painfully 
displayed than in suppositions like 
this." Under Ezra, "priestly ordi- 
nances were made known and imposed 
upon the Jewish nation now for the 
first time." The writer's method of 
arriving at his conclusions is less his- 
torical than Ewald's. Indeed, it is 
dogmatic, with the above view respect- 
ing K the principal religions " as the 
point of departure. By consequence, 
unlike Ewald, he finds little trust- 
worthy historical matter in the Pen- 
tateuch. 

3. Graf and his School. 

§ 13. In Germany a somewhat health- 
ier theological point of view is occupied 
by a school of sufficiently radical Old 
Testament critics. The results reached 
by this school are frequently as startling 
as in the case of Ewald, or of Kuenen; 
but they are reached in a more evan- 



12, 13.] Origin of the Pentateuch. 



21 



gelical spirit. This school may be said 
to have taken definite rise from about 
1866, when Graf — Professor at Meis- 
sen, in Saxony — published an essay 
entitled, " The Historical Books of the 
Old Testament: Two Historical Exam- 
inations." The idea of mere historical 
development, or of mere religious devel- 
opment (in Kuenen's sense), was aban- 
doned for confidence in a divine hand 
underneath the history and underneath 
the religion. Nevertheless, the divine 
hand operated under historical condi- 
tions, and a devout criticism of the Old 
Testament books must therefore be 
undertaken. In his treatment of the 
Pentateuch, Graf entered upon a minute 
comparison of it, part with part, and 
by topics, and arrived at conclusions in 
keeping with his eloquent theory, that 
^the Church of the Old Covenant, 
like the Church of the New, was not 
founded by a written document. The 
old Church had its origin, like the 
new, in the living word of revelation by 
prophets." 



Part I. 



22 



Historical Value of Genesis I.-XI. 



[§ 



Part I. 



§ 14. W. Bob- 
ertson Smith a 
propagandist 

of the forego- 
ing school. 



1. Legisla- 
tion of the 
Pentateuch 
not enforced 
before Ezekiel 



4. W. Robertson Smith. 

§ 14. Having noted in this school a 
movement, rather than its details, it 
will be profitable to consider briefly the 
views of that one of its members who 
is now most before the public eye in 
Great Britain and America. 

The spirit of W. Robertson Smith — 
lately Professor at Aberdeen — is, to a 
good degree, evangelical, and he is 
intensely in earnest. Always presup- 
posing these traits, he is an enthusiastic 
and fascinating propagandist of what 
may be called Graf's school. Accord- 
ing to him, the view that the Pentateuch 
is substantially of Mosaic origin, requires 
to be tested by the subsequent history. 
The Pentateuch certainly goes back to 
Ezra's time : what light is shed upon its 
origin by the history between Moses 
and Ezra? 

1. In the first place, the legislation 
of the Pentateuch was never enforced 
during that period. Even the success- 
ive reformers of the people failed to 



14.] 



Origin of the Pentateuch. 



23 



comply with it. So pure a character as 
Samuel had no scruple about sacrificing 
on high places, contrary to it. " From 
the Judges to Ezekiel, the Law in its 
finished system and fundamental the- 
ories was never the rule of Israel's 
worship." True, the principal portions 
of the history are represented as a 
record of lapses from Jehovah, but the 
lapses were not lapses from such legis- 
lation as that of the Pentateuch. 

2. Again, during that period it was 
not rites and ceremonies — as after the 
Captivity — which gave a distinct life 
to the nation, but the living voice of 
prophets. It was their glory to speak 
Jehovah's word. It was the people's 
glory that they possessed prophets. 
The prophets spake only, and wrote not, 
until the wicked nation would no longer 
listen; then they wrote. Moreover, the 
prophetic idea of forgiveness was direct; 
not by process of ritual. Hence, since 
prophecy did not supersede ritual, ritual 
must have come in only in the last days 
of prophecy. " The conclusion is in- 



2. From 
prophecy to 
ritual, the or- 
der of the He- 
brew national 
life. 



2± Historical Value of Genesis I -XI. [§§ 



3. The Pen- 
tateuch not of 
the Mosaic 
age ; its con- 
stituent parts ; 
its historical 
portions com- 
posed in part 
from ancient 
documents. 



evitable, that the ritual element . . . 
became part of the system of God's 
grace only after the prophets had 
spoken." 

Thus radically divergent from Ewald's, 
is this school's sense of the historical 
order. (See § 8, above, at the end.) 

3. Once more, the Pentateuch is found 
to accord with these judgments. It has 
a kernel of ancient legislation — prin- 
cipally Ex. xxi.-xxiii. It has the Deu- 
teronomic code — principally Deut. xii- 
xxvi. — of about Josiah's time. It has 
an extended priestly code, of the age of 
the Captivity — foreshadowed by Eze- 
kiel in connection with his vision of a 
new Temple. Its historical portions 
were composed in Palestine — quite 
possibly as late as David's period — 
in part from documents more or less 
ancient. 

" These results," remarks the writer 
when he has prepared the way for the 
conclusions just summarized, "have a 
much larger interest than the question 
of the date of the Pentateuch. It 



14, 15.] Origin of the Pentateuch. 



25 



is more important to understand the 
method of God's grace in Israel than 
to settle when a particular book was 
written." 



II. Kemakks upon the Foregoing 
Yiews. 

First Remark. 

§ 15. The above views — so diverse 
in themselves — start from a common 
assumption, and arrive at a common 
result. 

The assumption from which they 
start is, that the Hebrew national life 
developed in accordance with the same 
general principles that have operated 
in other history. 

The result at which they arrive is, 
that the Pentateuch was the outgrowth 
of the Hebrew national life, not its 
starting-point. 

Vatke put the assumption and the 
result concretely eight-and-forty years 
ago, when he said: "Leviticus must 



Part I. 



§ 15. Their 
common as- 
sumption — 

development 
of the Hebrew 
national life 
according to 
ordinary his- 
torical princi- 
ples. Their 
common result 
— the Penta- 
teuch the out- 
groiuth, not 
the starting- 
point, of the 
Hebrew 
national life. 



26 



Historical Value of Genesis I -XI. [§ 



Part I. 



§ 16. Their 

wide preva- 
lence. 



have followed Isaiah, for sacerdotalism 
always follows faith." 



Second Remark. 



§ 16. "With regard to the extent to 
which these views prevail, "W. Robert- 
son Smith affirms that their more evan- 
gelical type represents "the growing 
conviction of an overwhelming weight 
of the most eminent and sober scholar- 
ship." Professor Bissell, of Hartford, 
who has lately been in Germany, would 
materially qualify this statement; but 
has " no doubt that a large majority of 
the younger theologians of Germany 
have really adopted " similar views, " and 
find in them a happy solution of many 
perplexing critical problems." It is 
significant, from an Anglo- American 
point of view, that a fund has been 
enthusiastically raised in Scotland from 
which to support the unseated Aberdeen 
Professor in his studies and public ex- 
positions, and that he edits the more 
important Old Testament matter in the 



15-18.] Origin of the Pentateuch. 



27 



ninth edition of the Encyclopaedia 
Britannica. 

Third Remark. 

§ 17. It should be remarked, also, 
that the same principles of criticism 
which appear in these views, are applied 
to the entire Old Testament. Indeed, 
it is largely through handling the Old 
Testament in such a manner, that the 
conclusions respecting the Pentateuch 
are reached. As, however, the Penta- 
teuch is the stem out of which the Old 
Testament seems to grow (and, in truth, 
the New), the ~New Criticism reaches 
its culmination in "reconstructing" 
that document. 

Fourth Remark. 

§ 18. The bearing of these views 
upon the question in hand — viz., the 
historical trustworthiness of Genesis 
i.-xi. — is obvious: 

It is in the light of such views that 
the question has presented itself at this 
time. 



§17. The en- 
tire Old Testa- 
ment involved 
in them. 



§ 18. Their 
necessary con- 
nection with 
the present 
inquiry. 



28 Historical Value of Genesis I -XI. [§ 



Also, such views, while they differ 
in their estimate of the chapters under 
consideration, agree in removing that 
very considerable voucher for the trust- 
worthiness of the chapters — a substan- 
tially Mosaic origin of the Pentateuch. 

Furthermore, unless these chapters 
have been misconceived, they are the 
tap-root of the Pentateuch. Ewald, 
with true historical insight, makes them 
such in the case of his " Book of Ori- 
gins " (§7, above) . A cavalier disjDosal 
of them, therefore, through making the 
Pentateuch the outgrowth, not the 
starting-point, of the Hebrew national 
life, challenges attention in this inquiry. 
It may be that Genesis i.-xi. and the 
Pentateuch stand in relations which 
cannot be broken; and that Genesis 
i.-xi. will yet break the New Criticism. 
(See § 43, below.) 



18, 19.] Origin of the Pentateuch. 



29 



III. Grounds of Dissent from 
the Foregoing Views. 

1. General Grounds. 

§ 19. Respecting the common result 
of the foregoing views — viz., the con- 
clusion that the Pentateuch was the 
outgrowth of the Hebrew national life, 
not its starting-point — it is to be 
observed : 

1. First, that the conclusion is not 
proved. As the advocates of an \\i\- 
broken evolution of man from the lowest 
forms of life, have entered upon elabo- 
rate studies, and have laid science under 
large obligations to their researches; 
so have these schools of criticism 
brought great learning and ingenuity 
to bear upon the Old Testament docu- 
ments, with many valuable results. 
But just as there are many fatal breaks, 
as yet, in the proof of a complete evo- 
lution, so are there many breaks here. 

Ewald's account of the origin of the 
Pentateuch, though instinct with his- 



§ 19. Their 

conclusion : 



1. Not 
proved. 



30 



Historical Value of Genesis 1 -XI. [§ 



Part I. 



torical acumen, has never been regarded 
as proved. 

The Dutch critics make assumptions 
which are too large, and pass to conclu- 
sions too lightly. 

The school of which W. Robertson 
Smith is the exponent rests its case, first, 
on an attempted proof that the legisla- 
tion of the Pentateuch was not enforced 
between Moses and Ezekiel: whereas, 
if it were not, that fact would no more 
show that those ages had not the Pen- 
tateuch, than the want of conformity of 
the Christian Church to the Gospel, be- 
tween the sixth and the sixteenth cen- 
turies, would show that the Church had 
not the writings of the Evangelists. 
This school rests its case, secondly, on 
an attempted proof that the order of 
the Hebrew national life was from pro- 
phecy to ritual, and not vice versa: 
whereas Ewald, who arrives at this 
school's general conclusion, is unable 
with his great historical insight to find 
that such was the fact. This school 
rests its case, thirdly, upon an analysis 



19.] 



Origin of the Pentateuch. 



31 



of the Pentateuch — which, considering 
the convulsion which the divine plan 
for Israel seems to have suffered in the 
Wilderness of the Wandering, affords a 
narrow margin for argument, much less 
for proof. 

2. It is to be observed, also, that the 
different laborers and schools of labor 
along the line of these views, have 
reached as yet no detailed agreement. 
They start with a common assumption ; 
they arrive at a common conclusion; 
but they disagree all along the way. 
" Not even so " does " their witness 
agree together " (Mark xiv. 59) . But 
it must reach some agreement before it 
can carry conviction. For example, 
the radical divergence between Ewald, 
and Grafs school, already noted. 

3. It is to be observed, moreover, that 
these views raise more difficulties than 
they solve. It is harder to believe in 
the "reconstructed" Pentateuch than 
in the Pentateuch as it stands. The 
sanguine man of Aberdeen leads you 
confidently along, pointing out how in 



2. Their con- 
clusion ar- 
rived at icith- 
out detailed 
agreement. 



3. More diffi- 
culties raised 
by it than set- 
tled. 



32 



Historical Value of Genesis I -XI. [§§ 



4. The natu- 
ralistic plane 
reached in ar- 
riving at it, 
itself a diffi- 
culty. 



his path you escape this difficult hill, 
and that too narrow causeway, but he 
leaves you in a bog. 

4. One difficulty these views seem to 
escape. By their common assumption 

— viz., ordinary historical development 

— they seem to make the whole history 
natural. The mystery — the struggle 
to come to the birth — is gone out of it. 
And particularly when you have traced 
with Ewald "what extraordinary for- 
tunes this great work underwent," you 
seem to have got a key to Hebrew his- 
tory made easy. But this escape really 
involves you in a more serious trouble : 
for, turn the history over and over as 
you will, you cannot help feeling that 
its peculiarity lies precisely in its diffi- 
culty; that, emptied of difficulty it be- 
comes commonplace; that, in point of 
fact, what occurred was not a natural 
history at all. 

On these general grounds, were there 
nothing further to be said, it would seem 
that these views must fail to command 
assent. 






19, 20.] Origin of the Pentateuch. 



33 



2. Particular Grounds. 

§ 20. But there is much more to be 
said : 

1. There is a strong line of testimony 
out of the Old Testament books, tracing 
the Pentateuch of Ezra's time back to 
the time of Moses — a line of testimony 
often challenged, but not yet discred- 
ited. 

2. Also, there is strong internal evi- 
dence assigning the Pentateuch to the 
Mosaic age : its archaic words and modes 
of expression; the accuracy of its nu- 
merous Egyptian allusions; the nice 
correspondence of its appropriate por- 
tions to the wilderness life; its ampli- 
tude of detail — such a characteristic 
of authentic writing; its simplicity, 
fidelity to human nature, and impartial- 
ity — as of an original record. 

Both these points have been devel- 
oped with some fullness, and in popular 
form, in Dr. Stebbins' recent " Study 
of the Pentateuch." They might, how- 



§ 20. The 
Pentateuch of 
substantially 
Mosaic origin: 

1. As shown 
by a strong 
line of Old 
Testament tes- 
timony ; 



2. As shoion 
by strong in- 
ternal evi- 
dence ; 



34 Historical Value of Genesis I.-XI. [§§ 



•3. As shown 

by profuse 
Xeio Testa- 
ment testi- 
mony. 



§ 21. More- 
over : 
1. The as- 



ever, be put more completely and effec- 
tively. 

3. Moreover, there is profuse testi- 
mony in the NeAV Testament — in part 
authenticating the Pentateuch, in part 
assigning it in general terms to Moses. 
For a single example, Christ most ex- 
plicitly says: "If ye believed Moses, 
ye would believe me; for he wrote of 
me. But if ye believe not his writings, 
how shall ye believe my words?" 
(John v. 46, 47.) But such testimony 
must be disallowed, according to Kue- 
nen, who says : " We must either cast 
aside as worthless our dearly bought 
scientific method, or must for ever cease 
to acknowledge the authority of the 
New Testament in the domain of the 
exegesis of the Old." (See § 41, below.) 

On these particular grounds it would 
seem that the foregoing views must be 
dissented from. 

3. Grounds in the Nature of the Case- 

§ 21. But further still: 

1. The assumption with which these 



20, 21.] Origin of the Pentateuch. 



35 



views start (§ 15, above) — viz., that 
the Hebrew national life developed in 
accordance with the same general prin- 
ciples which have operated in other his- 
tory — is incorrect, if Christianity is a 
supernatural religion; and if, being- 
such, " salvation is from the Jews " 
(John iv. 22). 

2. Also, taken all in all, the Penta- 
teuch is the masterpiece of Hebrew 
literature. But masterpieces of litera- 
ture have authors. Ewald with his 
usual penetration recognizes this, and 
in creating and apostrophizing the 
author of his "Book of Origins " (§ 7, 
above, at the end), does what little he 
can toward supplying one. But none 
of the foregoing views supplies one. 
And in denying to the master mind of 
Hebrew history the substantial author- 
ship of the masterpiece of Hebrew lite- 
rature, these views leave that master- 
piece not adequately accounted for. 

3. Moreover, Hebrew history is the 
masterpiece of ancient history. It, too, 
requires to be accounted for. "With the 



Part I. 

sumption — de- 
velopment of 
the Hebrew 
national life 
according to 
ordinary his- 
torical princi- 
ples — incor- 
rect ; 



2. No ade- 
quate author- 
ship of the 
Pentateuch 
found ; 



3. Hebrew 

history not ad- 
equately 
accountedfor; 



36 Historical Value of Genesis I -XL [§ 



±. The great 
moral traits of 
the Jeivs — the 
point of de- 
parture for 
Christianity 
— rooted in a 
misapprehen- 
sion or in a 
fraud, which 
unhistorical 
and unpsycho- 
logical. 



Pentateuch as its starting-point, all is 
explained. "With the Pentateuch as its 
outgrowth, it is left like a majestic tree 
without roots. 

4. Once more, these views require 
the belief that the great and distinctive 
moral traits of the Jews, on which 
Christianity was engrafted, took their 
rise in a misapprehension of facts, if 
not in a fraud. For it was the firm 
conviction of the Jews for centuries be- 
fore Christ, that the system of the Pen- 
tateuch came direct from God to Moses ; 
and it was that living conviction which 
produced a Simeon, a John the Baptist, 
a Paul — which, in short, made it pos- 
sible to plant Christianity in the world. 
But that conviction, according to these 
views, was a mistake. And it was a 
mistake due either to a misapprehension 
or to a fraud, mysteriously connected 
with somebody between Hilkiah and 
Ezra. 

But to ground such a conviction, and 
a conviction producing such results, in 
misapprehension or in fraud — which 



21.] 



Origin of the Pentateuch. 



37 



is thus what these views require — is 
consistent neither with sound history 
nor with sound psychology. If, then, 
it is not true that K the law was given 
by Moses," that which " came by Jesus 
Christ " was neither " grace " nor 
"truth" (Johni. 17). 

On these grounds, involved in the 
very nature of the case, in addition to 
the general and to the particular 
grounds previously considered, it would 
seem that the foregoing views must be 
rejected. 



PART II. -AUTHENTICITY OF CHAPTERS I.-II. 



By faith we understand that the worlds have been 
framed by the word of God. — Heb. xi. 3. 



Through one man sin entered into the world, and death 
through sin. — Bom. v. 12. 

3. 
The flood came, and destroyed them all. — Luke xvii. 27. 

4. 
(a.) Nothing will be restrained from them. . . . Let us 
go down, and there confound their language. — Gen. 
xi. 6, 7. 
(b.) They were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and began 
to speak with other tongues. — Acts ii. 4. 

5. 
He made of one every nation of men for to dwell on all 
the face of the earth, having determined . . . the 
bounds of their habitation. — Acts xvii. 26. 

6. 

Jesus . . . the son of Abraham, . . . the son of Noah, . . . 

the son of Adam, the son of God. — Luke Hi. 23-38. 



Part II. 

§ 22. Reca- 

Xntulation. 



Preliminary Observations. 

§ 22. Some of the principal views 
which controvert the substantially Mo- 
saic origin of the Pentateuch having 
now been examined in a spirit of can- 
dor, and as comprehensively as the 



§§22,23.] Authenticity of Chapters L-XL 39 



present discussion will admit, and a 
variety of grounds having been found 
on which these views must be rejected 

— the specific question proposed (§ 2, 
above) — viz., the historical trustworthi- 
ness, or authenticity, of Genesis i.-xi. 

— is next in order. 

§ 23. It must be stated at the outset 
in what sense the expression, " historical 
trustworthiness, or authenticity," is here 
used. It is used in the same sense that 
would be employed were it used of any 
history — a history of the rise of New 
England Congregationalism, for ex- 
ample. The question is: Are the con- 
tents of Genesis i.-xi. historically 
trustworthy, or authentic? That is: Do 
they accurately record what occurred 
in all the matters with which they deal? 
It is right, however, to make the fol- 
lowing qualifications : 

1. History has come to have a new 
sense amidst the prodigious historical 
labors of recent times. In the new 
sense it is, perhaps, equivalent to what 
lias been termed " philosophical history." 



§ 23. By 

"authenticity 
of the chap- 
ters," meant — 
an accurate 
record of what 
occurred in all 
the matters 
described. 
But: 



1. Philo- 
sophical histo- 
ry not meant; 



*0 



Historical Value of Genesis I.-XI. [§ 



Part II. 



2. Nor tech- 
nical accu- 
racy ; 



According to this sense, records, annals, 
monographs, are not history; they are 
— no matter how trustworthy — only 
the materials out of which to construct 
history. Obviously Genesis i.-xi. is 
not history in this sense. 

2. Again, every department of knowl- 
edge has come to be thought of as the 
proper subject of a history all its own. 
There is cosmological history; there is 
ethnological history; there is the his- 
tory of language; etc. Such history, 
properly written, is technical. But 
obviously, in so far as the contents of 
Genesis i.-xi. might properly fall un- 
der such departments of history, they 
are not technical. In their specifica- 
tions respecting the successive orders 
of life which appeared upon the earth, 
for example, technical accuracy in de- 
tails ought not to be expected; inas- 
much as the account is not of vegeta- 
tion and of animal life as they would be 
thought of by the botanist or by the 
zoologist, but of vegetation and of ani- 
mal life as they would be thought of by 



23.] Authenticity of Chapters I.-XI. 



41 



the ordinarily intelligent man. Accord- 
ingly this canon — viz., accuracy as ap- 
prehended by the ordinarily intelligent 
man, rather than technical accuracy — 
is assumed as the test of authenticity 
whenever such a distinction is of reason- 
able application in these chapters. 

3. Also, this requirement in con- 
structing the narrative — viz., capabil- 
ity of apprehension by the ordinarily 
intelligent man — must have laid some 
conditions upon the narrative. It was 
not to be expected, for example, that 
the narrative should use the expression 
"creative period," when the flexible 
word " day " would so much more 
simply and effectively serve men who, 
from want of experience of duration, 
had as yet no proper sense of time. 
Nor was it to be expected, for another 
example, that that occult fact — a cer- 
tain sex subordination — should be told 
in the precise terms of its institution to 
him who, after a sleep that exceeded 
nature, looked first upon one whom he 
could not help recognizing as bone of 



Part II. 



3. Nor pre- 
cise terms {as 
"creative pe- 
riod"), when 
general terms 
(as "day ") 
more suitable; 



42 Historical Value of Genesis I.-XI. [§§ 



Part II. 



4. Nor ex- 
emption from 
incidental in- 
accuracies. 



§ 24. By 
"authenticity 
of the chap- 



his bones, and flesh of his flesh. This 
second characteristic, then — viz., the 
substitution of general for precise terms 
(sometimes in single words ; sometimes, 
perhaps, in entire paragraphs) by rea- 
son of the conditions which capability 
of apprehension by the ordinarily intel- 
ligent man laid upon the narrative — is 
assumed not to discredit the authen- 
ticity of these chapters. 

4. Once more, those incidental inac- 
curacies to which all history is liable, 
and from which even inspired history 
seems not to be exempt, are not re- 
garded as vitiating the authenticity of 
these chapters. For example, Luke's 
record of the patriarchal line from 
Abraham to Adam, inserts one name — 
Cainan, between Shelah and Arphaxad 
(Luke hi. 36; compare Gen. x. 24, xi. 
12) — not found in these chapters; and 
in this respect either his copy of these 
chapters must have been inaccurate, or 
ours is — ours of them or of him. 

§ 24. There is a way of looking at 
these chapters not admissible under the 



23, 24.] Authenticity of Chapters I.-3LL 



43 



expression " historical trustworthiness, 
or authenticity," as here used — viz., 
the allegorical. And some, who would 
not like to say that these chapters are 
not historically trustwortrry, seriously 
inquire : w Historically trustworthy, no 
doubt: but how? allegoricaliy ? " 

It is not the present purpose to con- 
trovert such a method of understanding 
these chapters; though the unreason- 
ableness of it will be suggested later 
(§ 42, below). Nor would a part of 
what is about to be adduced in proof 
of the authenticity of these chapters, 
altogether lose force upon such an un- 
derstanding of them. But clearly, in 
so far as these chapters are allegorical, 
they are not true history. They stand 
for that, perhaps ; but they are not that. 
And they are valuable, perhaps, ethi- 
cally, or symbolically, according to the 
possibility intimated earlier (§ 3, above, 
under Number 1); but they are not 
valuable as true history. On this 
ground, the expression "historical trust- 
worthiness, or authenticity," as used in 



ters," allegory 
excluded. 



tl4 Historical Value of Genesis I.-XI. [§§ 



§ 25. Voucher 



this inquiry, excludes — as stated — the 
allegorical view. 

But it may be asked : " Wherein does 
the above qualification [§ 23, under 
Number 3] about ? the substitution of 
general for precise terms ' — as in the 
use of ? day ' for c creative period '; or, 
as in the account of the creation of 
woman — differ from the allegorical 
view? " The answer is, that there is 
no difference in point of quality; but 
that, in point of extent and of bearing, 
the difference is radical. Figure, sym- 
bol, allegory, enter more or less into all 
language. When, then, such an ele- 
ment enters in part into a narrative, it 
does not obscure the substantial fact 
of the narrative; and it is only in such 
an application that the above qualifica- 
tion is intended. But when figure, 
symbol, allegory, usurp all — so that, 
for example, what is narrated is entirely 
allegory — the fact of the narrative is 
hid; and there is left only a symbol for 
the history, not the hitsory itself. 

§ 25. Returning now from this ex- 



24, 25.] Authenticity of Chapters I.-XI. 



45 



planation of terms to the question in 
hand, it should be observed that, in the 
substantially Mosaic origin of the Pen- 
tateuch — for a belief in which, as 
shown, there are ample grounds — these 
its introductory chapters receive strong 
confirmation. Derived in part from 
ancient documents or from oral tradi- 
tion though they seem to have been, 
they were not incorporated into the 
Pentateuch without first passing the 
scrutiny of a great mind and of a 
highly cultivated mind; nor without 
first passing also the higher scrutiny 
of that divine Oracle which, about a far 
less important matter, said: "And look 
that thou make them after their pattern, 
which was showed thee in the mount " 
(Ex. xxv. 40). 

~Nov should it be forgotten with what 
tenacity the Arab tribes to this day, in 
their monotonous desert solitudes, with- 
out monuments and with few written 
memorials, hold their family and tribal 
histories purely in memory, as in living 
and imperishable books. "When the 



Part II. 

for authentici- 
ty of the chap- 
ters, in the 
substantially 
Mosaic origin 
of the Penta- 
teuch. 



Also, in 
Arab tenacity 
of tradition. 



±6 Historical Value of Genesis 1 -XL [§S 



Part II. 



§ 26. French 
writer. 



§ 27. Ger- 
man icriter: 



marvels of recollection often exhibited 
by the squalid tribes yet extant are con- 
sidered, the possibility, nay, the prob- 
ability, that the goodly patriarchal line 
would hold trustworthy traditions of 
the primeval Avorld, is obvious. 

To pass on, however, to the line of 
examination proposed at the outset (§ 
4, above, at the end) : 

I. Testimony of Secular Historians. 

1. Lenormant. 

§ 26. One of the most recent books 
on ancient history comes from France. 
It is : " The Beginnings of History," by 
Francois Lenormant. It consists largely 
of these chapters, with comments upon 
them. 

2. Ewalcl. 

§ 27. Ewald of Germany — referred 
to at such length already, and, as was 
stated, a historian rather than a theo- 
logian — regards the Hebrew traditions 
respecting the prehistoric period, the 



25-28.] Authenticity of Chapters I -XI. 



47 



purest and most trustworthy in exist- 
ence. For example, speaking of the 
tradition of four ages of the world he 
says : K The Hebrew story presents the 
most conspicuous fragments of it, and 
lends us the most aid in inferring its 
original shape." It w possesses this 
superior merit, that it accurately dis- 
tinguishes and bounds the four ages 
according to their intrinsic nature, so 
that we see clearly why four — neither 
more nor less — are assumed, how each 
of them differs intrinsically from the 
rest, and has its meaning only in its 
own place and order." 

3. Henry and George Rawlinson. 

§ 28. In England the brothers, Henry 
and George Rawlinson, who have ren- 
dered high service in the treatment of 
ancient history — the former particu- 
larly in deciphering ancient oriental in- 
scriptions, the latter in his historical 
treatises — center ancient history at 
these chapters. Henry Rawlinson pro- 
nounces the genealogical table in Gen- 



Part II. 



§ 28. Eng- 
lish writers. 



4S Historical Value of Genesis I -XL [§§ 



Past II. 



The chapters 
variously un- 
derstood, but 
regarded as 
among the 
most precious 
memorials of 
antiquity. 



§29. An in- 
quiry from the 
outside 
proposed. 



esis x., for example, " undoubtedly the 
most authentic record we possess for 
the affiliation of those branches of the 
human race which spring from the 
triple stock of the Noahchidse." 

In an age when all historical records 
are being put to the most crucial tests, 
these examples of the deference paid 
to the chapters under consideration by 
recent historians, are significant. These 
historians have their own way of under- 
standing the chapters ; and, in some 
instances, regard them as symbols of 
history, rather than as history itself: 
but they agree in soberly ranking them 
among the most precious memorials of 
antiquity. 



II. External Testimony. 

§ 29. The chapters in question must 
next be tested as it were from the out- 
side, in respect to the main facts set 
forth in them. Are those facts — sum- 
marized at the outset (§1, above) — 
credible when judged independently? 



28-30.] Authenticity of Chapters I.-XI. 



49 



1. Creation. 

§ 30. And, first, the account of the 
creation. Considering the creative days 
to stand for periods, which is allowable, 
the record is strikingly in accord with 
the testimony of geology. Professor 
Dana writes : " The Bible says that man 
was the last creation ; geology says the 
same. The Bible says that quadrupeds 
next preceded man; geology says the 
same. The Bible says that inferior 
animal species, up to reptiles, were cre- 
ated before quadrupeds; geology says 
the same. The Bible says that there 
was, earlier, an age without animal life; 
geology does the same. The Bible 
says that after the earth had been long 
in formation (for its three days), the 
sun, moon, and stars appeared in the 
heavens. Geology makes this event 
long after the earth's beginning; and 
it may be shown to be probable, though 
not actually demonstrated, that this 
occurred after the earliest dry land 
appeared. The Bible says that vege- 



§ 30. Account 
of the creation 
— its substan- 
tial accord 
with science- 



50 Historical Value of Genesis I -XI. [§§ 



§ 31. Ac- 
count of man's 
first condition 
and of the fall 
— wide sup- 
port of both 
from tradi- 
tion. 



tation was created with the first appear- 
ance of land, before animal life. Science 
gathers but indistinct records from the 
earth on this point, yet plainly has 
no counter statement; and as far as 
there are any indications, they favor 
the above. The Bible sa}^s the world 
had a beginning; geology, by its 
very system of progress, points to a 
beginning" (Bibliotheca Sacra, xx. 
386). 

2. Man's First Condition — The Fall. 

§ 31. There is here the question of 
the unity of the race, which will be 
taken up later (§ 34, below). There 
is here also that double matter — man's 
first condition, and his lapse from the 
same. The general tradition of a remote 
" golden age," is in harmony with the 
one ; the detailed tradition, varying 
among different peoples, but involving 
with greater or less uniformity some- 
thing eaten, a serpent, a deliberate act, 
and subsequent misery — is in harmony 
with the other. Greece, Persia, Thibet, 



30-32.] Authenticity of Chapters I.-XI. 



51 



India, China, Mexico, present traces of 
snch traditions (Bibliotheca Sacra, xx. 
392-394). 

3. The Flood. 

§ 32. The traditions of this event 
constitute one of the most startling 
phenomena of history. When one of 
the early missionaries to the Sandwich 
Islands, in preaching, gave an account 
of Xoah and of the flood, the natives 
said, that an account had come down to 
them of a general inundation, and that 
two men escaped it on a small emerging 
point of a mountain; but the particu- 
lars given by the missionary they had 
not heard {Bibliotlieca Sacra, xxii. 
418) . This strange corroboration of the 
flood from an island of the Pacific, is 
only one of multitudes of testimonies 
from the old world, and from the new, 
and from the islands of the sea, repre- 
senting a score or more of peoples. 
And although, as in the instance cited, 
the traditions are often imperfect, yet a 
close student of the subiect has ob- 



Part II. 



§32. The 
flood — an al- 
most universal 
tradition. 



52 Historical Value of Genesis I.-XI. [§§ 



Part II. 



§33. The 
confusion of 
tongues : The 
Plains of Shi- 
nar a lin- 
guistic focus. 
Testimony of 
Assyrian tab- 
lets. 



served, that " there is scarcely a single 
feature in the Biblical account which is 
not discovered in one or several of 
these traditions." 

4. The Confusion of Tongues. 

§ 33. This catastrophe, which scat- 
tered the recovering race every whither, 
is also amply confirmed. There are 
strong reasons for believing the Abo- 
rigines of America to have been of 
Asiatic origin. Bunsen says, w that 
two imperishable records, language 
and mythology," assign the origin 
of the historical races to Central Asia. 
Henry Rawlinson affirms, "that if we 
were to be guided by the mere in- 
tersection of linguistic paths, and 
independently of all reference to the 
Scriptural record, we should be led 
to fix on the plains of Shinar as the 
focus from which the various lines had 
radiated." Traditions bearing upon 
items of the Biblical narrative, have 
come down from Egyptian, Greek, 
Mexican, and other sources; but — as 



32, 33.] Authenticity of Chapters I.-XI. 



53 



might be expected — those most signifi- 
cant are from the country which the 
Scriptures represent as the scene of the 
catastrophe. Without presenting de- 
tails of these last, the following render- 
ing from mutilated Assyrian tablets 
brought to England by the late George 
Smith, of the British Museum, may be 
cited : " The thoughts of men's hearts 
were evil, so that the father of the gods 
turned from them. Babylon had cor- 
ruptly turned to sin, and set about 
building a great Tower. Small and 
great mingled at the task, raising the 
mound. This they did all the day, 
raising up their stronghold; but in the 
night the god Anu entirely made an 
end of it. In his anger, also, he poured 
out before the gods his secret counsel 
to scatter them abroad, and set his face 
against them, and for this end gave a 
command to make strange their speech, 
and thus hinder their progress. jSTu- 
mantir — the god of confusion — hav- 
ing gone down, they violently resisted 
him, but he cast them to the earth when 



54 Historical Value of Genesis I -XI. [§§ 



Part II. 



§ U. Two 
points here: 



1. Tradi- 
tional and sci- 
entific testimo- 
ny to the unity 
of the race ; 



2. High trib- 
utes to Gen. x. 
and xi. as a 
record of race 
distribution. 



they would not stop their work " (Hours 
with the Bible, i. 283,284). 

5. Origin and Distribution of the 
Nations. 

§ 34. Respecting the account given 
of the origin and distribution of the 
earliest tribes and nations, two points 
claim attention: 

1. The question of the unity of the 
race — for convenience' sake deferred 
to be touched upon here. This is the 
voice of tradition, Max Midler testify- 
ing: "As far as I know, there has been 
no nation upon the earth, which, if it 
possessed any traditions on the origin 
of mankind, did not derive the human 
race from one pair, if not from one 
person." It is also the voice of a wide 
range of anatomical and physiological 
facts, as many of the ablest physiolo- 
gists bear witness. 

2. Secondly, the question of the trust- 
worthiness of the accounts given of the 
distribution of the race. Henry Eaw- 
linson has been cited in another con- 



33-35.] Authenticity of Chapters I.-XI. 



55 



nection (§ 28, above) as testifying to 
the importance of Genesis x. as bearing 
on the several lines of Noah's descend- 
ants. Ritter, the geographer, says, "that 
there are no ancient writings which the 
modern researches in history and geog- 
raphy so fully confirm as" the "eleventh 
chapter of Genesis and the works of 
Herodotus." Such being the testimo- 
nies to Genesis x., xi., it is reasonable to 
give the other allusions to this subject 
in the chapters a like credit. 

6. The Genealogical Chronology. 

§ 35. There is left only one other 
principal matter — the way the chapters 
in question are put within definite time- 
limits by a chronology in genealogical 
form. 

1. Respecting the general limitation 
of the antiquity of man to a short chro- 
nology which this matter — according to 
the ordinary interpretation — involves, 
it is to be observed that such work as 
Professor G. Frederick Wright is doing 
in observing glacial and other deposits, 



Part II. 



§ 35. Two 

points here 
also : 



1. Scientific 
evidence of a 
limited anti- 
quity of man; 



ESsk icall lue r~ Genesis I- -XL [§§ 



v 



1 Rfee long 
rdhs 6b- 



|3S. Impor- 

yf inter- 
nal evidence. 



tends to fix the first traces of man upon 
arth much nearer to the supposed 

Biblical period than science has been 
wont to claim. 

J. Respecting, on the other hand, the 
long-lived lineage from Adam to Abra- 
ham, there are no clear tests to apply. 
See, however, § 38, below, at the end.) 

This twofold and least clear topic of 
the chapters can certainly, without re- 
flection on the authenticity of the rec- 
ord, be left for further fight. 

ITT. fcSTEKNAL EvrDEX I 

;». The authenticity of no record 
is established unless it bears within 
evidences of trustworthiness. 
"Where records have to do with mat- 
remote and obscure, these evi- 
dences are often the most eonch 

J shed. An examina- 

I evidences of authen- 

. chapters, should 

rute, therefore, a leading division 

inquiry. 



35-37.] Authenticity of Chapters 1 -XI. 



57 



An article entitled "The First 
Eleven Chapters of Genesis Attested 
by their Contents/' which the late Pro- 
fessor Hackett translated from the 
German of Anberlen and published 
with annotations in the Bibliotheca Sa- 
cra for July, 1865 — presents this part 
of the subject with admirable brevity, 
penetration, and suggestiveness. The 
point of view is broad and philosoph- 
ical. 

]^or can too much well be said in 
praise of the late Professor Tayler 
Lewis' additions to Lange on these 
chapters — as bearing on this part of 
the subject. All the positions taken 
may not be tenable; but the point of 
view is that of a seer — acute as a 
Greek oracle, deep-seeing as a Hebrew 
prophet. 

§ 37. A part of the internal evidence 
lies in the form of the narrative. Its 
great simplicity, purity, and dignity; 
the sharp contrast which marks it, 
when laid side by side with the noblest 
forms of collateral tradition; the man- 



Part II. 

Auberlen on 
this part of the 
subject. 



Tayler 
Lewis. 



§37. Internal 
evidence from 
the form of the 
narrative. 



Historical Value of Genesis I -XI. [§§ 



§ 38. Internal 
evidence from 
the matter of 
the narrative. 



ner in which it is content to leave the 
mysterious and seemingly incredible, 
without toning it down, and without 
trying to explain it — these are some of 
the marks of a record of facts ; of facts 
apprehended simply and clearly in their 
real relations; and of facts so pro- 
foundly impressing themselves upon a 
line of serious men, as to be held in 
tradition clear and unmixed, like bars 
of gold and inestimable jewels trans- 
mitted from generation to generation. 

§ 38. Another part of the internal 
evidence lies in the matter of the nar- 
rative. Everything in it is weighty. 
There is not one trivial line. The pro- 
foundest themes are successively under 
treatment, and a purely original light 
irradiates them all. There is more sci- 
ence — clothed in popular language — 
in Genesis i., than the scientists of all 
the ages have searched out. There is 
more theology, than all the chairs of 
dogmatics have expounded. And so it 
is from chapter to chapter. Intelli- 
gently read, they impress themselves 



37-39.] Authenticity of Chapters I -ILL 



59 



upon the consciousness as true — for 
example, the deep significance of those 
three catastrophes, the fall, the flood, 
the confusion of tongues. When one 
reads the blessed and prophetic marvel 
of Acts ii. 1-11, that baleful marvel of 
Genesis xi. 1-9, is seen to have an in- 
dissoluble relation to it. And who 
shall say but the primeval longevity, 
over which so many stumble, had its 
roots not in physiology alone, but in a 
psychological need, to the end that men 
should come to have some adequate 
consciousness of duration and of race- 
solidarity ? 

§ 39. "Ah, the philosopical wits must 
have so much trouble about the swad- 
dling bands of our race and must be 
ashamed of them; must wish the waters 
of the flood had swept them away, or 
at least left them to appear only in the 
juggler's commentary. And yet ye 
are, dear, oldest, and eternal traditions 
of my race, kernel and germ of its most 
hidden history ! Without you, mankind 
would be what so much else is, a book 



§ 39. Herder 
on the internal 
evidence. 



60 



Historical Value of Genesis I -XI. [§§ 



§ 40. Christ's 
allusions to 
parts of these 
chapters. 



without title, without first leaves and 
explanation; with you, our family ac- 
quires foundation, stem, and root, back 
to God and father Abraham. And 
they are all taken in so simple, child- 
like a tone, from the mouth of the first 
tradition among the trees of the eastern 
land, and are set forth by Moses, so true 
and one by one, as if he found them 
there, the echo of eternal tunes." (Her- 
der, quoted by Auberlen.) 



IV. Testimcxnt of the Pre-exist- 
ext Christ. 

§ 40. But one voice of testimony has 
not yet been heard — the most compe- 
tent of all — the voice of him who said: 
"Before Abraham was, I am" (John 
viii. 58). 

Jesus said: r 'He which made them 
in the beginning made them male and 
female, and said, For this cause shall a 
man leave his father and mother, and 
shall cleave to his wife; and the twain 



39, 40.] Authenticity of Chapters 1 -XI. 



61 



shall become one flesh " (Matt. xix. 4, 
5; compare Mark x. 6-8). 

Jesus said: "That upon you may 
come all the righteous blood shed 
on the earth, from the blood of Abel 
the righteous unto the blood of Zacha- 
riah son of Barachiah" (Matt, xxiii. 
35; compare Luke xi. 50, 51). 

Jesus said: "Ye are of your father 
the devil, and the lusts of your father 
it is your will to do. He was a mur- 
derer from the beginning, and stood 
not in the truth, because there is no 
truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, 
he speaketh of his own : for he is a liar, 
and the father thereof" (John viii. 44). 

Jesus said: "And as were the days 
of Noah, so shall be the coming of the 
Son of man. For as in those days 
which were before the flood they were 
eating and drinking, marrying and 
giving in marriage, until the day that 
Noah entered into the ark, and they 
knew not until the flood came, and 
took them all away; so shall be the 
coming of the Son of man" (Matt. 



62 Historical Value of Genesis I -XL 



Part II. 



Allusions of 
Christ's duly 
accredited 
representa- 
tives, the JS T ew 
Testament 
zo r iters. 



§ 41. Futility 
of attempts to 
discredit this 
testimony. 



xxiv. 37-39; compare Luke xvii. 26, 

27). 

Thus in these four instances, with 
their parallel passages, he refers to and 
authenticates the account of the cre- 
ation, of the fall and its bloody se- 
quence, and of the flood. 

One of the Evangelists traces his 
genealogy back to Adam, coinciding, 
except in the single particular already 
mentioned (§23, above, under Number 
4), with that genealogical table of the 
chapters, which is also a chronology. 
And in other writings of his duly ac- 
credited representatives, the creation, 
Adam and Eve, the fall, Cain and Abel, 
Enoch, and the flood, are mentioned — 
all the passages amounting to a consid- 
erable number. 

§ 41. It is true that efforts are fre- 
quently made (see § 20, above, under 
Number 3) to break the force of the 
New Testament testimony to the au- 
thenticity, not of these chapters only, 
but of the entire Pentateuch. The 
plea made is, that Christ and the New 



40, 41.] Authenticity of Chapters I -XL 63 



Testament writers adapted themselves 
to the received opinions respecting the 
Pentateuch, and did not pass judgment 
upon those opinions. 

Such an adaptation in minor particu- 
lars is conceivable. But it is not con- 
ceivable that unauthentic records, and 
that mistaken notions about the general 
"method of God's grace in Israel," 
should be made the foundation of Chris- 
tian doctrine (e. g., Mark xii. 26, 27), 
of Christian duty (e. g., Matt. xix. 4-6), 
and of the gravest warnings and ex- 
hortations (e. g., Matt. xxiv. 37-39, 
Heb. xii. 14-17, iii. 13-19). And it is 
not conceivable because such a suppo- 
sition: (1.) Either assumes an igno- 
rance on the part of Christ and of the 
]STew Testament writers which unfits 
them to teach final truth; (2.) Or 
assumes — in the most momentous con- 
nections — a connivance at error on 
their part which morally disqualifies 
them: (3.) While at the same time, 
and as already suggested (§21, above, 
under dumber 4) , it is unhistorical and 



64z Historical Value of Genesis I.-XI. [§§ 



§ 42. The ev- 
idence sum- 
marized. Such 
a narrative 
not allegori- 
cal. 



unpsychological to root Christianity in 
misapprehension or in fraud. 

Conclusion. 

§ 42. Now, that what — as has been 
seen — receives such high deference 
from even the least evangelical secular 
historians; that what tradition and sci- 
ence unite more and more to confirm 
the accuracy of; that what is of such 
sobriety, steadfast seriousness, dig- 
nity, and weight, as to authenticate 
itself; and that what Christ and the 
New Testament writers grounded more 
or less of Christianity upon — should 
be conceived of as true, indeed, but as 
to any considerable degree allegorical, 
is solemn trifling. Perhaps the rocks 
in the successive geological strata are 
allegorical. Perhaps the remains of 
prehistoric animals are allegorical. But 
stratified rock and the fossils of ex- 
tinct animals are not more a reality in 
geology, than the contents of these 
chapters are a reality in histoiy. And 



41-44.] Authenticity of Chapters I-3LL 



65 



a most eloquent silence, immutability, 
and unimpeachableness, characterize 
both. (See, however, § 23, above; 
compare § 24.) 

§ 43. It might also be fairly ques- 
tioned, as hinted above (§ 18, at the 
end), whether — ruling out for the mo- 
ment so much of the proof of the authen- 
ticity of these chapters as has been 
drawn (§ 25, above) from the substan- 
tially Mosaic origin of the Pentateuch 
— these chapters do not of themselves 
constitute one of the most formidable 
proofs of the substantially Mosaic origin 
of the Pentateuch. Ought not the peo- 
ple among whom the contents of these 
chapters were a cherished hereditary 
possession, to be expected to have such 
an intervening history and such a com- 
ing history, that the appearance of the 
Pentateuch among them at an early day 
would be natural? What is the Penta- 
teuch but these chapters working them- 
selves out? 

§ 44. This inquiry has now been pur- 
sued throughout the course proposed at 



Part II. 



§ 43. Such 
an introduc- 
tion, consid- 
ered by itself, 
a formidable 
proof of the 
substantially 
Mosaic origin 
of the Penta- 
teuch. 



§44. " Con- 
cerning thy 
testimonies, I 



66 Historical Value of Genesis 1 -XI. [§ 44. 



Part II. 

have knoicn of 
old that thou 
hast founded 
them forever." 



the outset — meagerly, indeed, as the 
occasion has required, but with fidelity; 
and no uncertain conclusion has been 
reached. 

Verily : " Thou art near, O Lord; and 
all thy commandments are truth. Con- 
cerning thy testimonies, I have known 
of old that thou hast founded them 
forever" (Ps. cxix. 151, 152). 



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